home baking

• What do you add to make it rise?

  Raising agent
• Key ingredients for home baking

  • Flour
  • Fat
  • Sugar
  • Eggs
  • Liquid
• Advantages of home baking

  • Better, fresher flavour and aroma
  • Usually cheaper
  • No artificial preservatives used
  • Recipes can be modified to suit special dietary needs
  • Control over ingredients used, e.g. the amount of sugar
  • Less packaging – more environmentally friendly
• Flour


  Wheat flour is generally used as it contains gluten
• Fat


  Keeps baked goods fresh for longer. Butter, margarine and vegetables oils are most commonly used
• Sugar


  Caster, granulated (table), brown and icing sugar are used to sweeten or decorate
• Eggs


  Bind dry ingredients together and trap air in the mixture
• Liquid


  Milk, buttermilk or water are added to bind dry ingredients
• Raising agents


  These are added to make cakes and bread rise
• Raising agents

  • Air
  • Bread soda
  • Baking powder
  • Yeast
• Air


  Introduced into the mixture by sieving, rubbing in, creaming or whisking. Once the mixture is heated, the hot air rises, pushing the mixture up
• Mechanical raising agents


  • Sieving
  • Whisking
  • Rubbing
  • Folding
  • Creaming
• Bread soda


  An alkali. When mixed with an acid liquid (e.g. buttermilk), it produces carbon dioxide (CO2)
• Baking powder


  Contains both an acid and an alkali. When liquid is added (e.g. egg), CO2 is produced
• Bicarbonate of soda (bread soda)


  When moistened with an acidic liquid, e.g. buttermilk, it produces CO2
• Baking powder


  Contains bicarbonate of soda (alkali), cream of tartar (acid) and flour. This produces CO2 when mixed with a liquid, e.g. milk
• Yeasts


  Living organisms used in bread making. When they are warm and moist (in bread dough), they multiply, producing CO2
• Gluten


  A protein found in wheat and other cereals. When moistened, it becomes stretchy and elastic, allowing the bread to rise. It sets when heated, forming a crust and keeping bread or cakes in their risen state when they are cooled
• Cake making methods


  • Rubbing in
  • Creaming
  • All-in-one
  • Whisking
  • Melting
• Rubbing in


  Fat is rubbed into flour with the tips of the fingers until it looks like breadcrumbs e.g. scones and pastry, crumbles
• Creaming


  Fat and sugar are beaten together until whiter and creamy e.g. cupcakes and fruit cakes
• All-in-one

  All ingredients are added at once and mixed thoroughly by hand or using an electric mixer or food processor e.g. cupcakes and madeira cakes
• Whisking

  Eggs and sugar are whisked until thick and creamy e.g. sponge cakes and meringues
• Melting


  All ingredients that melt are melted together, e.g. fat, sugar and syrup e.g. gingerbread and muffins, flapjacks
• Commercial cake mixes

  Contain all the dry ingredients needed to make a cake: flour, fat, sugar, a raising agent and other additives, e.g. flavourings and preservatives. The ingredients are sieved, blended and aerated before being sealed in a packet. To make the cake, you usually have to add wet ingredients, e.g. egg, milk or water
• Pastry


  A mixture of fat, flour and water which is made into a dough, then kneaded, rolled out and shaped. Extra ingredients can be added to make a richer pastry, e.g. eggs and sugar
• Baking blind


  Baking a pastry case without any filling. This is done to seal the pastry, so that it will not absorb the juices of the filling and become soggy, and to ensure that pastry is fully cooked when using filling ingredients with a short cooking time
• Baking blind technique


  Prod the base of the pastry case with a fork

  2. Place a sheet of greaseproof paper on the base and cover with a layer of rice or baking beans

  3. Bake for 15 minutes at 200°C

  4. Remove the paper and rice or baking beans and cook for a further five minutes